What Every Woman Should Know About Hormones, part 3 of 4

Being estrogen dominant causes stroke, heart attack, cancer (especially of the reproductive organs), and osteoporosis, to name a few.

We need estrogen dominance in the first week of our 28-day cycle. Estrogen prepares a woman for conception, and it promotes rapid cell growth. It has its function, but when it’s excessive all month long, you can imagine how it fuels cancer growth. It also activates a cancer-stimulating gene called Bcl-2. (Progesterone, though, down-regulates that same gene).

Then progesterone should become dominant during the last two weeks of our cycle, to protect pregnancy. When we don’t have enough progesterone, we get PMS symptoms. Women who balance their estrogen appropriately with bioidentical creams find that their PMS symptoms abate.

Mine completely, totally disappeared years ago, and I used to have moderate to severe symptoms: big mood swings, a lot of crying and general hatefulness towards people I actually love, cramps that required drugs. All gone for many years now.

Women who have too much estrogen are often prescribed synthetic hormones. And that’s the vast majority of women over 40 these days, who are estrogen dominant. A significant percentage of women under 40 are, too. (Birth control hormone virtually guarantees estrogen dominance!)

They think they are balancing their hormones, with drugs. They’re not. You cannot balance your hormones with drugs.

Fact is, the hormones are SIMILAR to the natural hormone produced in the body, but not the same. Testosterone andprogesterone, molecularly, are very, very similar. You know they’re very different in their function, don’t you? You’d have to stare at a picture of both of them, to ascertain the tiny difference in the oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen atoms. My point is, a small molecular difference is a very big deal!

For 20 years, doctors prescribed women synthetic estrogen for menopause symptoms—with no progesterone for the “check and balance”—and then discovered massive rates of endometrial cancer. Women with low progesterone have a 540 percent higher incidence of cancer than women with normal progesterone levels, according to a Johns Hopkins study in the 1980’s.

The Women’s Health Initiative studied 16,000 women receiving Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT, or synthetic, hormone-similar drugs) from 1997 to 2005. However, in 2002 the study was stopped, because the women were experiencing so many life-threatening side effects.

No bioidentical hormones were used in the study. Only Premarin, an estrogen so named because it is made from PREgnant MAres’ uRINe, and the highly dangerous Provera, a progestin, or drug that is similar to, but different than, natural progesterone.

Another huge study published in JAMA in 2000, followed 46,000 women prescribed Premarin and Provera and discovered that if they use HRT for five years, their breast cancer rate was 40 percent higherthan women not using HRT!

At this point, in my opinion, prescribing these drugs equates to malpractice. But have they been taken off the market? Of course not. They are still the most common form of HRT prescribed today, in combination!

It’s easy and inexpensive to use natural “bioidentical” hormone, which simply means that it is molecularly identical to the hormone produced in the body.

So why don’t more people use it?

Because who would profit by promoting it?Suzanne Somers does, and brave pioneering M.D.’s like Jonathan Wright and John R. Lee do. They are more interested in the truth than in blindly furthering drug companies’ agenda. (Only altered molecules can be patented. Only patented substances can earn billions of dollars. Bioidentical substances are inexpensive and since they are natural, unpatentable. So if you’re Big Pharma—which do you market to doctors?)

And a number of docs and practitioners who sponsor my lectures “get it.” More docs know the research. Still, most don’t.

There are many natural progesterone creams on the market. I’m curious why you don’t recommend does and suggest that she see a doctor and use a compounding pharmacy. Some people don’t have insurance or cannot afford the cost of medical care.

Hi Robyn: I am in my late forties. Do you know if there is anything negative about having a progesterone IUD put in to stop periods altogether thus providing more stability because the hormones wouldn’t be going up and down through the month?

Deb, the progesterone in your IUD is very likely a drug, not actual progesterone bioidentical to what your body makes. Using hormones to stop natural processes always creates other imbalances and risks.

There is so much information out there and so many opinions. Thank you for all of the clarifications! I had several people tell me I needed the hard core prescription medication to ease my symptoms. I stuck with my instincts and my family was patient with me while I worked through some natural products. I have settled on Wild Yam cream and doTerra Balance and that seems to do the trick!

But are not even natural, bioidentical hormones creating “crutch” for our bodies, not teaching or allowing the body to bump up their production? I understand as we age this isn’t possible for some people, but I do know there are some herbs that can help your body to start making more of the appropriate hormones, on their own. How do you feel about this? THANKS!

Janet, I agree. And it’s a concern. That said, we are up against SO many endocrine disruptors in our environment, such an unnatural state we live in (which is why 1/2 men and 1/3 women currently get cancer)…..I think it’s unlikely (in my case, anyway—I’ve tried) to have a diet-only approach actually do the job, post-40. Diet needs to be part of it. I do the diet. It helps somewhat. But I have to supplement in order to make up the difference.

80,000 chemicals approved in our environment. Plastics, metals, pesticides…..it’s hard to bend your brain around the effect on the human organism. I’m amazed we do as well as we do!

Loving this segment. Thanks. So what if I’m the opposite of estrogen dominant? I’m pcos and have too much testosterone. I’ve only ever felt well pregnant but only got that way through lots of fertility. Would bioidenticals be and option for me as well? I actually started the diet trying to help the hormones, but I’m not good yet. A lot healthier, 10 lbs lighter, but not good hormonally. I’m currently on the pill to help “regulate” me, but you have just confirmed what I have been thinking/feeling anyway – I need to quit that and find something else. It isn’t working either. Thanks again for your segment. Very timely for me since I have been debating this lately.

I too have PCOS. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, but what I have been taught and read about PCOS is this: the reason why you are getting cysts is because your body is not releasing the egg, and it turns into a cyst. The reason why it’s not releasing an egg? … Because you aren’t making the progesterone your body needs to release the egg. So, that means your progesterone is low.

Low progesterone means that you are estrogen dominant. Progesterone and estrogen work hand in hand and have to exist in the right balance to be healthy. Having high testosterone is not the opposite of being estrogen dominant. It is in it’s own category, so to speak.

Mercola’s site has a good PCOS article from a few years ago that talks about progesterone and natural help for it.

I would highly recommend you see someone else regarding your PCOS. Your current practictioner is going to make your health worse, not better.

I am seeing a nutritionist (via Skype because we live in different states) who gave me an AWESOME female hormone test that you take at home (by collecting saliva in a vial on specific days of your cycle) and it tells you what your hormones are doing throughout your entire cycle, rather than just on one day of the month like a blood or urine test does. She prescribes herbs and supplements to help with the hormones. I’ve been taking the herbs/supplements for about 3 weeks now, and I’m already starting to see small improvements.

The nutritionist’s website is: ANewLeafNutrition.net . I’ll warn you that her nutrition philosphy is similar to that of Weston A. Price (lots of meat, dairy … but only from grass fed, non-drugged sources). But I don’t really follow her nutritional advice. I see her for the hormone testing and natural treatments … which she does at cost, too!

Whatever you do, I personally recommend you find another practitioner. I was previously going down a route similar to yours, and I just got worse and worse.

Thanks for the responses. I’ll have to check out that website. I like the idea of checking hormones regularly. I’d really like to go in and have them checked every time I have a migraine (which is regularly) I know it is possible for me to feel better because I felt great pregnant. It just took tons of work to get pregnant and I’m not planning on doing that again. Wish I could feel that way always though. It is the reason I started the 12 steps in the first place, but they are just not enough. Better, but not enough. Thanks again for the responses.

Cart

GreenSmoothieGirl and GSGLife founder, Robyn Openshaw’s passion for educating people about diet and nutrition arose from her own personal journey. 20 years ago, Robyn weighed over 200 pounds and had 21 chronic diseases.

Getting off the Standard American Diet proved a lifesaver. Robyn lost 70 pounds without dieting, by converting to a whole-foods, mostly plant-based diet. Twenty years later, she is a competitive athlete, free of all disease and symptoms, and at her ideal weight.